Alfalfa meal or pellets can be found at nurseries and garden centers that carry organic gardening fertilizers and soil amendments. Otherwise, it can be found at farm stores or at pet shops. Yes, the rabbit pellets can be used, provided they don't have salt or other noxious substances added. The label or the seller should have that information.

The cheapest place to buy it is your local co-op or farm supply store. Ask for agricultural (not rabbit food) to avoid the salt in rabbit food. Here it costs about $10 for 50 lbs. You can also get cottonseed meal very cheap and use it around your roses.

I don't make the alfalfa tea - I just dig in a good cup of it and the cottonseed meal around the base of each rose.

I'm with LisaLou, as are many people who have made alfalfa tea just once. The dry meal does at least as much good in the long run as the tea -- and it doesn't have that foul, sickeningly obnoxious odor of the tea.

Skip the rabbit pellets and ask for pony pellets (smaller sized horse pellets). Rabbits pellets have other ingredients in them, salt, molasses, read the label; horse/pony pellets do not. Feed stores in horsey areas carry this in big bags.

I got a 50 lb bag of alfalfa from a feed store - the rabbit pellets do have salt.

Actually the molasses in rabbit food would be good for feeding the microherd...

I have used the meal, and it seems to help--visibly as far as soil tilth. I would consider applying it as an undermulch amendment because it can get sort of crusty and look a little weird. I spread it througout my rose beds, and it retarded weed growth, too.